How we work to save animals (part 1): Behind-the-scenes

Kitty Block helping to greet beagles spared from animal testing and transferred to our care and rehabilitation center in Maryland in 2022. Kevin Wolf/AP Images for the HSUS

If you follow our stories here on this blog or on our social platforms or email lists, you are probably familiar with the central calling that keeps us working day after day: to stand up and fight for all animals who are suffering. You’ve probably heard about our efforts around the globe to protect wildlife, improve farm animal welfare, promote animal-free testing methods and end industries that exploit animals. This is an enormous undertaking, and so you might have wondered what it really looks like to tackle such huge issues.

Thirty years ago, when I began this work, I only saw one facet of it—and it was something I will absolutely never forget: I was on a team that followed transport trucks full of terrified horses taking them to slaughter when there were still horse slaughter plants in the United States. By exposing what was happening inside these slaughter plants, we helped to end the practice of horse slaughter in the U.S.

Flash forward to today, and I’ve learned how fighting for all animals takes strategy and persistence on multiple levels to create change. It takes the expertise of our staff—including scientists and veterinarians, educators and lawyers, animal caregivers and plant-based chefs, technology specialists and policy advisers, project managers and more. It takes inclusion, compassion and respect for one another and the partner organizations, allies and supporters who make our work possible.

By taking a multipronged approach, we not only help animals in need but also fight the root causes of their suffering—saving millions of other creatures from suffering a similar fate.

To help explain how your support helps us fight—and win—for all animals, I’m going to share a behind-the-scenes look at our work in the next few weeks here on the blog.

I’ll share with you how we help animals by focusing on ending the worst forms of institutionalized animal suffering. Our progress is the result of the support from our donors that enables our work with governments, the private sector and multinational bodies; public awareness and consumer education campaigns; public policy efforts; and more.

I’ll detail how we help animals by responding to large-scale cruelty cases and disasters around the world, providing rescue, hands-on care, logistics and expertise when animals are caught in crises. Our care centers heal and provide lifelong sanctuary to those who are abused, abandoned, exploited, vulnerable and neglected.

And I’ll explain how we help animals by creating a stronger animal protection movement through partnerships, trainings, support, collaboration and more, and how this empowers and expands the capacity of animal welfare advocates and organizations in the U.S. and across the globe.

Earlier this summer, I shared a bit about how I got into this work in the hopes that my story might inspire a new generation of animal advocates to use their skills to do good for our fellow creatures. I’m excited to share with you in more detail how together with our supporters we’re creating a more humane world for animals and how you can get even more involved to help secure that future. More soon.

Don’t miss it: Subscribe to A Humane World

Follow Kitty Block on Twitter @HSUSKittyBlock.